


a cup of you (and some bad coffee)

by orphan_account



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff and Humor, Kinda, M/M, it's more seungmin being mad at changbin's coffee taste bc he's a pretentious coffee connoisseur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 21:38:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16542764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: As if the cafe Seungmin's working at isn't bad enough, the boy who keeps coming in with the most terrible coffee combinations becomes a loyal customer.





	a cup of you (and some bad coffee)

**Author's Note:**

> i want more coffee shop aus but with meet uglies

Seungmin takes pride in his job. 

Even if said job is working as a barista at a small cafe down the street from his house. He loved the smell of coffee, the taste, making it and drinking it and going home smelling like it. It was an art form in itself that Seungmin would spend hours perfecting it if he could. 

Seungmin takes pride in his job, he really does. But in his co-workers? Not so much.

He spends the most time with the other two baristas, Hyunjin and Felix, who are quite possibly the epitome of dumb and dumber if their work ethic, and almost burning the place down is enough to go by. Minho, the janitor, mostly mopped the floors and cleaned the tables. but since he had never laid a single hand on the back of the cafe because it was ‘downright filthy,’ (even though his job is to prevent exactly that) Seungmin’s never gotten the chance to speak to him. Then there was Woojin, the assistant pastry chef. He was a slightly awkward boy who mostly worked in the back making the desserts and had a habit of bringing the food out to the display case very quietly and unassumingly, lest some of the girls in the cafe see him.

And the ringleader of them all was Chan, the manager, and a generally loud and welcoming person. Who’s also the one to come up with the dumbest ideas to spice up the place.

“Get your ass out of there and back in front of the register,” Chan looks incredibly imposing at the doorway; the light filtering in from outside casts an impossibly large shadow into the tiny room, the artificial light making his curly, frazzled hair glow ominously. 

“I am not going out there with this dumbass name tag on.” Seungmin snaps. Chan raises an eyebrow before pointing back towards the front of the cafe.

“I don’t care if you don’t like your new name, we’re in a rush, and you need to be out there.” Chan puts a hand on his hip, meaning that he has no time for an argument and what he says goes. Seungmin resigns himself to his fate, heading out of the storage room with a sigh.

Felix is running back and forth between the two coffee machines while Hyunjin’s at the register, and judging by the look on the customers face, he’s not doing too well. Seungmin places a hand on his shoulder to pull him away.

“Go help Felix—” Seungmin can see Chan staring at him intently from the corner of his eye, “ _Flex..._ with the orders.” His eyes flick down to his co-worker’s new name tag, “uh, Dick.”

“Sure thing, Pretty Boy,” Hyunjin replies as he scampers back to the coffee machines to help the other barista with the growing list of orders.

Seungmin sighs, fingers lightly tracing the cheap plastic on his chest with the words “Pretty Boy” written on it in Chan’s distinct writing. Seungmin really hates his boss.

 —

Once the afternoon settles into an early evening, the clinks and clatters resonating throughout the cafe die down, along with the energy of the entire staff. Felix rotates to register duty, leaving Seungmin in the back with Hyunjin.

“Non-fat vanilla latte with extra whipped cream and 7 Splendas. 6 mixed in, one sprinkled on top,” Felix calls back from the cash register. Hyunjin bangs his head against the wall, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like, “not again,” and Seungmin is confused.

“What kind of order is that?” Seungmin mutters, hands already moving to make the order.

“It’s Changbin,” says Felix as he walks up to the two, tone filled with resignation and regret.

Chan sticks his head out of the back as Seungmin shakes the whipped cream canister. “Really? He’s back?”  he asks, smiling at the mortified expressions of the two baristas.

“Yeah,” says Hyunjin, voice dark. “With one of his orders from hell.”

Seungmin finishes drizzling on the Splenda and walks up to the counter. “Non-fat vanilla latte for Changbin,” he says.

“Thanks.”

Changbin, on first impression, looks nothing like the devil from hell that Seungmin soon learns him to be. He seems to be around Seungmin’s age, with bangs slightly obscuring his eyes that glow gold under the lights. He’s good-looking, that much Seungmin could admit. Though it’s too bad that his order is the dumbest thing that Seungmin has ever heard of.

He stands there for just a second too long, and Changbin cocks an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”

Without hesitation, because Seungmin’s known for being blunt and, overall, an asshole, asks, “Why did you order that?” 

Changbin, looking taken aback, takes a pointed sip of his ridiculously complicated coffee and says, “It tastes good.”

“Yeah, but—non-fat, really? And then you go ahead and put whipped cream on it? _With_ Splenda on top? I mean, what’s even the point if all the cream just means you can’t drink it properly, and then it dissolves which makes the coffee to cream ratio get all fucked up and you just look like an idiot.” 

The longer Seungmin talks, the louder he gets until both Hyunjin and Felix are gaping at him. Changbin, on the other hand only blinks at him, unphased. “The Splenda on top makes it crunchy,” he says as if that was the only thing that registered in his (possibly very, _very_ tiny) brain. “Thanks for the coffee, Pretty Boy,” he says before he heads out.

Surprisingly, Seungmin can’t even feel embarrassed at the name, too busy steaming in anger at the mockery that is Changbin’s taste in coffee.

 —

It’s busier than usual, and the staff abandons their usual demeanor as they struggle to deliver food and coffee in a timely manner. Felix’s arms are almost blurry with how fast he’s making coffee, and Hyunjin has two silver jugs balanced precariously on the end of the steam wands as he pours textured milk into cups with a third.

Seungmin idly notes that the shapes he makes in the foam are vaguely phallic; the reason why Hyunjin got the name tag he’s wearing right now in the first place.

Seungmin’s in charge of the register again after Chan had complained, “I have food to take out, Dick and Flex have coffee to make, Toast is busy refilling the pastry display and Incubus...well he’s got to do whatever it is he does out there.” And so had disrupted his sweet time alone and avoiding the customers calling him the cursed name on his tag. They’re so busy that Seungmin doesn’t even notice Changbin enter the cafe. Not until they’re face to face and is completely unprepared for the way that Changbin’s face lights up at the sight of him.

“Venti iced chai with 25 pumps of hazelnut syrup,” Changbin says.

He has to be fucking with him. Seungmin takes a second to breathe, half expecting him to say sike but the other boy just stares at him. Waiting. “Coming right up,” Seungmin says with a smile.

It’s until he walks to the back that he practically starts hissing, “25 pump iced chai?” at Felix, who smiles at him out of pity. “Is he crazy?”

He turns and stomps towards the coffee pitchers, creating this genuinely absurd order with as much finesse as he can. Hyunjin and Felix can only stare in confusion, being pretty sure that Changbin hadn’t asked Seungmin to make it himself.

Hyunjin sighs, “I’ll just take register,” and walks towards the counter while Seungmin angrily mutters about how “this is just syrup over some damn ice the fucking _heathen_.” 

For the rest of the day, Seungmin’s co-workers can’t help but stare at him in concern.

—

It’s day fifteen, and Changbin sticks with a coffee order enough to become a usual. 

“Eight shots of espresso?” Seungmin asks, _again_.

“And a pump of maple pecan sauce,” Changbin says as if that cancels out everything wrong with the drink. Seungmin feels sick.

“Venti pumpkin spice latte with eight shots of espresso and a pump of pecan sauce.” Once he gives Changbin the monstrosity in his hands, the boy pays for the drink in loose change, tugs on his bag using his free hand, and settles into the booth by the window. He sips slowly, lips on glass brim, hands around the warm mug, and Seungmin can almost hear him sigh in content. Changbin licks off the cream caught on his lips, the tip of his tongue appearing and disappearing in a flash, before he locks eyes with Seungmin. Seungmin reddens to his roots, embarrassed at being caught staring and looks away. 

The only thing Seungmin can do is retreat to the back to wash the dishes as Chan tells the staff that there are five minutes left until closing. Seungmin looks up from where he’s cleaning at the clinking sounds by the counter. Changbin’s hands are still on the cup from where he places it, slowly withdrawing them when he catches Seungmin looking at him. “Thanks for the coffee—uh, I don’t know your name?” He prompts with a small smile.

Seungmin bites the inside of his lip. “Seungmin,” he finally says and turns his attention back to the dishes in the sink. A small _‘bye Seungmin’_ hits his ears before the doorbell chimes, and looks up to find Changbin gone, leaving behind a froth-stained cup and a flushed pink Seungmin.

—

“Busy day?” Changbin asks as he eyes every single fumble Seungmin makes with the spare change the last customer gave him. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin says in a clipped tone, “Your usual?”

“You remember?” Changbin asks curiously.

 _Of course_ , Seungmin wants to say; _it’s the most horrific one that you’ve ever ordered._

He doesn’t say it out of courtesy (and the fact that it’s partially a lie because, if he’s being honest, it’s hard not to remember when Changbin makes this pleased little hum whenever he drinks from it, and the recipe was ingrained into his head ever since). Seungmin decides to do a simple nod instead, and Changbin grins in response, “Thanks Seungmin.”

Hyunjin gasps dramatically, his fingers on the coffee machine slowing down, “He knows your name? That’s against company policy!” Seungmin kicks the side of Hyunjin’s leg, but it only encourages the other to keep talking, “Maybe we should change your tag to Lover Boy, huh? Do you know he has your vanilla latte order memorized from the first time you ordered it?”

Okay, so maybe Changbin does that with  _all_ of his drinks and Seungmin has grown used to waiting for those oddly endearing happy noises.  

“Oh my God, shut up” mutters Chan as he walks past “Don’t talk to the customers you annoy them. Go back to drawing dicks in their coffees.” 

Changbin brings a hand to cover his mouth as he clears his throat awkwardly, a faint smug, and amused smile hiding behind it. Seungmin really wishes he could retreat to his corner in the storage room to die. Felix, bless his heart, already has the order finished before Hyunjin can embarrass him any further. Changbin takes the order from Felix’s hands and nods a goodbye at Seungmin before he leaves. Seungmin sighs once the front door closes and Changbin is nowhere in sight.

“Stop sighing,” Chan chimes from the back, “your shift doesn’t end until two.”

— 

Seungmin doesn’t realize he’s hoping for Changbin to come back until it’s been a week and a half since he last set foot in the cafe. Seungmin blames it on the slow shift; his hands have been itching to make something beyond the Caramel macchiato and Vanilla Bean frappuccino orders they’ve been getting today.

“Oh hey, isn’t that Changbin walking by?” Hyunjin asks as he nods his head at the window.

Seungmin lets out a small scoff, “Why would I care—,” He shifts his head towards the windows, ”Woah. Wait.” Hyunjin’s lips tremble in an attempt to stifle his laughter at Seungmin’s distraught expression.

“What the fuck is in his hands? He definitely didn’t get that coffee from here!” Seungmin ignores the attention he’s getting from the customers as his voice gets two octaves higher, “He didn’t get it from here. Where—”

“Probably from the Starbucks down the street. I guess he’s sick of you always judging his orders,” Felix interrupts.

Seungmin doesn’t get to hear Felix’s explanation any further as he rushes into the kitchen. From Chan’s view on the other side of the cafe, all he sees is his two baristas being shoved around roughly in the back and a red-faced Seungmin storming past him to give the front door a hard push.

Chan, along with the rest of the staff, walk to the windows to see the young barista running after Changbin like his life depended on it.

“Oh, hey Seungmin,” Changbin says by the time said boy manages to stop in front of him. Changbin gives a confused look at the sight of him, doubled over and heaving with his hands on his legs, “Are you oka—”

Changbin’s half-filled coffee cup getting slapped out of his hand and the hot coffee splattering upon the pavement stops him mid-sentence and starts Seungmin’s outburst.

“Why the hell did you go to someone else to make your weird ass coffee orders? They probably don’t even make it right!” Seungmin yells, “And! I spell your name perfectly!”

Seungmin gestures at the fallen coffee cup labeled “ _Change_ ” and eventually points his finger to the coffee cup in his hand labeled “ _Seo Changbin_ ” to prove his point. 

“...How do you even know my surname?”

“I ask around!” Seungmin replies without hesitation as he shoves the cup of coffee into his hands.

And with that, an angry Seungmin stomps back inside leaving a dumbstruck Changbin, an embarrassed Chan running out to apologize, and a hysterical Hyunjin and Felix trying to catch their breath from their laughter.

Woojin shuts them up, “Why are you guys laughing? Changbin might never come back to this place again! We just lost a regular.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hyunjin manages to say after his laughter dies down, “We told Changbin to get coffee from Starbucks.”

“You—you what? Why?”

“We knew Seungmin would panic,” Felix continues, “And Changbin has an obvious crush on him so now he’ll come here more often.”

“You guys are evil,” Minho mutters as he mops around them.

Minho pauses as he looks up, smiling and placing his chin on top of the mop at the sight of Changbin blushing profusely as he awkwardly scratches the back of his neck, Chan staring at him blankly.

—

“Get out,” Seungmin says the minute Changbin puts one toe in the shop.

“Hey,” Changbin pouts, flagrantly disobeying and moving closer to the counter. “You were the one who told me a week ago that cafes can’t make my coffee orders right.”

Seungmin flushes a bright red; he always does when Changbin keeps bringing it up whenever he can. “Whatever. What do you want.”

Changbin beams at him. “I want a soy cappuccino with four teaspoons of sugar and a shot of raspberry.”

“That is disgusting,” says Seungmin, but he’s already moving to make it. “You disgust me,” he yells from the back. 

Changbin sits at a table near the back (courtesy of Minho who was tired of seeing the two flirt over the counter), half hidden by the tall houseplant next to his seat. Seungmin comes out of the back minutes later, face still red with embarrassment but his eyebrows furrowed to convince Changbin otherwise. As he places the cup down, Changbin manages to sneak a quick peck on his check.

Seungmin pulls back, staring at the boy with wide eyes while the other rests his chin on top of his palm, smiling up at him. Seungmin isn’t sure what brings him to do it. Anger? Frustration? His overbearing crush on Changbin that he still can’t come to terms to even though they’ve made out in this exact spot for the third time this week? Seungmin isn’t really sure of _anything_ these days, but he’s already placing both of his hands on Changbin’s face to bring him into a kiss. 

It tastes like bad coffee, their kisses always do, but it doesn’t stop them until they’re both dizzy and laughing into each other’s mouth at the ridiculousness of it all.

**Author's Note:**

> mmmmmyeah


End file.
